Mostly electoral trusts: where major parties got donations from

The six parties covered in the analysis — BJP, Congress, NCP, CPI, CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress — declared donations of Rs 985.18 crore from the corporate sector, out of which Rs 488.42 crore (49.58 per cent) came from electoral trusts. The BJP received Rs 458.02 crore of this, the Congress another Rs 29.40 crore, and the NCP and Trinamool Congress Rs 50 lakh each. Another 12 per cent came from the manufacturing sector, and 9 per cent from the real estate sector.

Prudent/Satya Electoral Trust was the top donor with Rs 429.42 crore, all of which went to two parties. It donated 46 times in two years, contributing Rs 405.52 crore to the BJP in 33 donations and Rs 23.90 crore to the Congress in 13 donations.

The total contribution from the corporate sector constitutes 93 per cent of all donations received by the six political parties from known sources (Rs 1,059.25 crore), the ADR said. Such contributions accounted for 94 per cent of donations to the BJP and 81 per cent of those to the Congress.

Of the six parties, BJP received Rs 915.596 crore from 1,731 corporate donors, followed by the Congress which received Rs 55.36 crore from 151 corporate donors.